Five Things Wrong With Nintendo

The Nintendo Wii is by far one of the biggest surprise stories of gaming. From its unconventional name to its even more unconventional control scheme, few people believed that the console would take off. Fast forward 18 months in the future and the Wii is arguably the most successful system to come out this generation. Despite all the good things that the Wii has accomplished, that doesn’t free it from its faults.

Described in the jump are the five biggest faults of the Nintendo Wii.

5. Online Features

This is pretty common complaint among critics of Nintendo. I don’t necessarily think it is bad as some people make it out to be, but at the same time, when compared to Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo is severely lagging behind in this space. While they are making small but meaningful strides in this space (Super Smash Brother’s Brawl as a recent example) they are not doing nearly enough.

First and foremost, the friend code system has got to be trashed. There are plenty of ways that Nintendo can keep their family-friendly image to all the Mom and Pop’s out there, while still providing gamers with an infrastructure to keep track of their online friends with more ease. Friend codes wouldn’t be so bad if there was just one set of codes for you and your friends to enter. But for whatever reason, Nintendo made the decision to have a friend code for your Wii system, and then have additional friend codes within online titles to be different. Perhaps in lieu of the recent “Xbox Live rape” scandal, people just can’t stop thinking about the children. What about the gamers, damn it!

The decision to not allow voice-chat in any of their slim line-up of online games isn’t as condemnable though. (And, like all the current complaints, are subject to change) Personally, I think that voice chat within online games is worthless unless you are talking to friends that you already know. Xbox Live (and PSN to a lesser degree) is filled to the brim with racists, homophobes and other general slimy characters. Who wants to talk to these people, exactly?

4. Raising Quality Standards

The amount of absolute steaming piles of **** that call themselves video games on the Wii console is astonishing. Let’s go over some of these games, shall we? Have you heard of Anubis II? Legend of the Dragon? Jenga World Tour? Ninjabread Man? Need I go on?

It used to be that the seal on quality on Nintendo’s boxes meant something, but ever since Nintendo laxes their standards, chances are you’re buying a $20-$50 box full of nothing. Think of the Mom and Dad that do not know a single thing about video games for a second; they’re looking at a Wii game to get for their child. This child is suffering from cancer, you see. They want to get a game that will cheer the little guy or gal up, and they decide that Ninjabread Man looks like it’s suitable for their child to play.

They plop the money down for the game and bring it home to their child. The child is already sick, and the absolute brutality of these types of games is crushing both his/her will to live, as well as mine. You don’t really want to crush our spirit to live, do you Nintendo?
3. New Franchises, Please

Nintendo has slowly allowed themselves to rely on a base of key Nintendo franchises for much too long. I love all of the Nintendo staples; Donkey Kong, (hell, how about a new Donkey Kong platformer?) Mario, Link, etc., but would it hurt to try and branch out and create a couple new characters that we can grow to love?

I know, Wii Fit, Wii Play and Wii Sports. Those are all new franchises that Nintendo has created within this console cycle, and they do play an important role for the development of the platform itself. This is about as close as you’ll see me get to criticizing Nintendo’s focus on casual games, since it is so easy to say “Blame Wii Fit,” for the lack of new “hardcore” titles. But those titles are not something that we as hardcore gamers crave as badly as a nice epic adventure, a new platformer, or maybe even a shooter. New characters and new worlds to explore is what we want more than mini-games, and we’re not getting them.

Can we get one, please?

2. Focus on the Wii Control Scheme

The Wii, more than either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, has seen its fair share of innovative titles that have fundamentally changed the way we play games. However, it seems like Nintendo is the only company to fully take advantage of the unique control setup the Wii offers. (Well, Capcom, by all accounts, did a great job with Zack and Wiki.)

Sadly for the “hardcore gamers”, the casual games are cleaning up in this space. Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Wii Play are putting us in new situations, enabling us to experience new ways to play games. What Nintendo must do is to reach out to third-parties (and this goes hand-in-hand with quality standards) and work with them to create new ways to use Wiimote/nunchuk in their titles. Too many times when playing Wii games have I felt that I was essentially playing a PS2 port. Nintendo needs the maximum amount of innovation to continue to dominate this market, and they can’t do it alone forever.

1. Supply Issues

This is probably the most obvious of them all. I myself have not had to go running around town, calling up stores to procure a Nintendo Wii. I got mine at launch. Yet, we’re a year and a half into their console cycle, and I can count on one hand how many times I have actually seen a Nintendo Wii in a store shelf, just waiting to be purchased. I understand that the console is selling like hotcakes, but there isn’t one good reason that they cannot meet the demand for the system.

Outside of the unique control setup, the innards of the Wii is for all intents and purposes a glorified Gamecube. (Or, for an additional fanboy baiting comment, the Wii is a “two Gamecubes duct taped together”) So why can’t Nintendo increase production so that they can get a Wii to every person that wants it? Why the rat race?

I am sure most of you can find more than 5 things wrong with them, but these are the general problems/concerns. The ones that I agree are big problems are no Voice Chat (weak online) and lack of new franchises. Hopefully Nintendo starts or already has planned to do both of those.

Everything about the Wii's online is weak, there's nothing it does better than PSN or Live. Nintendo needs to do a major overhaul in that department, but I don't know if they actually care since most Japanese players dont even care about online.

Yes they need to make better standards, but I think Nintendo overall is screwed. Making hardware thats inferior to the rest is just not going to attract developers. Lets say Nintendo did make a standard, then they would be stuck with a handful of games and making little to no money by software sales. So I don't really see how this can be fixed until the next console.

New franchises I agree 100%, this is all on Nintendo, but truthfully I think Nintendo is scared to take risks. They seem to have a cookie cutter mindframe when it comes to their games. They're usually rahashed ideas that seem to keep people pleased somehow... For instance, Zelda games are always the same. It's just different visuals and a new story. Everything else is almost exactly the same. It's like if MS kept making Halo trilogies with a new story and say it's a different Master Chief in a different era...

Control Schemes is all up to the game devs, I don't think Nintendo can really fix that because they do fine on their own games.

Supply and Demand! Somehow I think Nintendo is purposely doing this to keep up anticipation for the console. I don't understand how the cheapest console is having such huge supply issues. Don't give me that crap about Wii selling like Hotcakes because even though it's selling alot, compared to how cheap it is to make and how easy, it should be able to keep up.

You cant really blame them for the supply. I heard they are making 1.8 million a month. More than any other system ever. (I may have miss heard, but this is what the rep for nintendo america said on Gametrailers on spike TV tonight).

man nintendo online needs to step it up alot as we all agree on, speaking to one another is one thing, but the friend code thing is just... hell no..

personally i'd say to keep the zelda games basically link against ganon, its classic and its been around for years (i was pissed when there was no ganon in majora's mask), but they need some new rpg games as well..

another thing i wanna mention is how nintendo claims to be for all audiences or w/e, they need to focus on the mature audience a bit more... reminds me how smash bros brawl is slower than melee, did they slow that down because it was too fast for the little kids or something? the wii is still my favorite console but the DS lost me forever.

The Wii, more than either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, has seen its fair share of innovative titles that have fundamentally changed the way we play games. However, it seems like Nintendo is the only company to fully take advantage of the unique control setup the Wii offers. (Well, Capcom, by all accounts, did a great job with Zack and Wiki.)

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Has the writer of the article actually played on a Wii? I think it's a bit rich criticizing something that they have no first hand experience of.

None of the original list is a description of a fault with the Wii .. .. .. .. it's a list of what people think they want for the Wii (and if they had it there would STILL be supid lists like this made).

The reason why the online is crap is because its free..
If we have to pay to play the online, it would suck for a person who are not allowed to use credit cards. (like me).
even though it's 5 bucks for month (like rumscap, i dont play, my friend does),
some parents doesn't really trust givng credit card numbers on internet.

Also, if u say that, all the money nintendo makes is enough to support the online gameplay?
Ur wrong! Nintendo is really famous console and also Rated E(everyone) game.
Which means, even a 5 years old can play it and enjoy it, but wahts wrong about it is, there are a lot of children out there who doesn't wears a wii strap but swings it too hard and hit someone, etc..
Then, nintendo gets blamed and get sued for a lot of dollars.

That's when Nintendo uses the money we should of get for online play, but instead they use it to protect themselves. Which is not a bad decision. I think it's great. Nintedo live = more games for mario fan isn't it? XD

Problem is the kid who doesn't know how to use freaking wiimote properly and nintendo get sued for it...

The reason why the online is crap is because its free..
If we have to pay to play the online, it would suck for a person who are not allowed to use credit cards. (like me).
even though it's 5 bucks for month (like rumscap, i dont play, my friend does),
some parents doesn't really trust givng credit card numbers on internet.

Also, if u say that, all the money nintendo makes is enough to support the online gameplay?
Ur wrong! Nintendo is really famous console and also Rated E(everyone) game.
Which means, even a 5 years old can play it and enjoy it, but wahts wrong about it is, there are a lot of children out there who doesn't wears a wii strap but swings it too hard and hit someone, etc..
Then, nintendo gets blamed and get sued for a lot of dollars.

That's when Nintendo uses the money we should of get for online play, but instead they use it to protect themselves. Which is not a bad decision. I think it's great. Nintedo live = more games for mario fan isn't it? XD

Problem is the kid who doesn't know how to use freaking wiimote properly and nintendo get sued for it...

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I honestly do not understand how people can still use the "it's free, so you can't complain" argument. PSN (both on the PS2 and PS3) is free, and they BLOW Nintendo online away. They have friends lists, voice chat, clans, etc.

The new franchise thing is sorta pushing things don't you think? Look at other major 3rd party do you see them pushing out new franchise every generation? or stick to their winning formula? Big N does try to push out new franchise each gen, so keep your horses : )

And correct me if I'm wrong, but PS2 online services are from third party correct? as far as servers, voice chats, etc. mostly those who have experience online on PC before? I don't know for PS3. Yes Big N can step it up a notch with the online, but only in time can we tell. An article every month, or every game that comes out with online support, complaining about FC and no voice chat gets bothersome don't you think?

The reason why the online is crap is because its free..
If we have to pay to play the online, it would suck for a person who are not allowed to use credit cards. (like me).
even though it's 5 bucks for month (like rumscap, i dont play, my friend does),
some parents doesn't really trust givng credit card numbers on internet.

Also, if u say that, all the money nintendo makes is enough to support the online gameplay?
Ur wrong! Nintendo is really famous console and also Rated E(everyone) game.
Which means, even a 5 years old can play it and enjoy it, but wahts wrong about it is, there are a lot of children out there who doesn't wears a wii strap but swings it too hard and hit someone, etc..
Then, nintendo gets blamed and get sued for a lot of dollars.

That's when Nintendo uses the money we should of get for online play, but instead they use it to protect themselves. Which is not a bad decision. I think it's great. Nintedo live = more games for mario fan isn't it? XD

Problem is the kid who doesn't know how to use freaking wiimote properly and nintendo get sued for it...

Click to expand...

You don't even actually know anything do you? Your whole arguement is all wrong.

PS2 and PS3 have free and better online like someone said

Even if you had to pay for online like 360, you buy prepaid cards (no credit card required) once a year.

Nintendo is currently the #1 selling console, they can afford to do better internet. But it's known by surveys done in Japan that around 80% of them do not care about online play because they think its "nerdy"

and no, you're wrong Nintendo would not get sued. The controllers come with straps and every game that boots up they remind you to put the strap on. So NO, they cannot be sued.

So no, they are not using that money to protect themselves for people getting hurt by not using straps lol? Where the hell do you think these things up.

i think it would be better if bowser wasn't in the game at all, why do they always feel the need to include everyone.....

they should just make a toad game against wart, it wouldn't be a new franchise, but it would be a good turn

in my opinion, a new franchise every generation is good, gamecube we got pikmin

wii, we got disaster, i like long series, so i don't want them to spend too much time on new franchises, i just wish some of the games story continues with the next game, kinda like oot and majora's mask

i think it would be better if bowser wasn't in the game at all, why do they always feel the need to include everyone.....

they should just make a toad game against wart, it wouldn't be a new franchise, but it would be a good turn

in my opinion, a new franchise every generation is good, gamecube we got pikmin

wii, we got disaster, i like long series, so i don't want them to spend too much time on new franchises, i just wish some of the games story continues with the next game, kinda like oot and majora's mask